Wish upon the Stars chapter 1010

Roland, to my dismay, didn't know much about what happened. “It was kind of sudden,” he said fuzzily. “Like I wasn't expecting to be attacked like that so I wasn't really aware of what was happening. I know that's frustrating but I don't have any more to tell you.”

I grimaced. I'd been afraid of that. “It’s fine, I helped because you’re a friend. I’m just glad you’re ok.” My face fell. “Derran wasn’t so lucky.”

Roland’s brow furrowed. “Something happened to Darren?”

I’d actually met the two of them near the same time, and I knew they were acquainted. It was hard to break the news given the connection, but Roland deserved to know, and as Darren’s first cousin, I felt like it was my responsibility to tell him so Delia didn’t have to. It was hard to get through, and when I was done, Roland slumped forward, head in his hands.

“Shit,” he rasped. “That’s…soul destruction? Whoever did it must have been a ruthless bastard. I mean, I get wanting to prevent him from leaking information, but that’s beyond the pale.”

I knew how he felt. After years (which sometimes felt like decades honestly) as an Ascendant, where death wasn’t the end of the line, having someone I knew just…stop like that was disconcerting. And Roland wasn’t like me. He HAD been around for decades. Maybe centuries. This must be even more shocking to him.

“Look,” I said slowly. “This is my fault, I think. They came after you because they knew I’d ask you to testify. If I make it clear you won’t they shouldn’t try again.”

Roland’s eyes flashed. “Did I say I wouldn't?" he snapped. “I’m no coward. You think this is my first assassination attempt? I refuse to be scared away by a near death experience. I WILL testify, and there’s nothing you can say to talk me out of it.”

I felt my chest tighten in gratitude. “Thanks,” I said quietly. “That means a lot.” I stood up, clearing my throat. “I’ll leave you guys to talk. You just woke up and I’m sure you must be exhausted. Feel better, ok? And if you need anything, anything at all, you let me know. Even if I DON’T become the Wishmaster, I’ve got some pull with my grandfather. I can help you out if you run into trouble.”

“Look at you,” he snorted. “All grown up and flexing your connections like a real young master. Must feel pretty good, huh?” His grin was teasing.

“It doesn’t suck,” I admitted with a laugh. “We can talk tomorrow, ok? Just get some rest.”

Nodding weakly, he slumped back onto the bed. Seeing him so exhausted and emaciated was almost scary. Roland was a B-ranker, and not JUST a B-ranker, probably the most combat focused B-ranker among the main bloodline holders. Roland was a swordmaster who focused almost all his wishes on collecting blade skills. His direct combat abilities were comparable to someone like Zeke before he’d broken through, and whatever had attacked him had done…this. I’d thought he was past it originally, but as soon as he finished talking he’d dropped like a puppet with its strings cut. His previous animation wasn’t recovery, it was sheer stubborn willpower.

Callie and I said our goodbyes and left Delia to take care of Roland, and Zeke met us outside. He grimaced when he saw me sway a little. “That was reckless,” he chastised. “I know you felt responsible and wanted to help, but that poison was no ordinary attack. Even with all your tricks you almost couldn’t beat it. And it was KILLING him. Did you consider what energy on that level would do to YOU if it successfully counter invaded?”

I blinked because…no. I hadn’t. I’d been so focused on saving Roland that I hadn’t even hesitated. But he WAS B-rank. If I’d been seriously infected by the lightningrot locust poison I’d have been a dead man.

“He knew the risks,” Callie said firmly. “And he asked for help. Worst case scenario I would have used Gossamer’s gem to channel Adam. I don’t believe some B-rank poison could counter the intervention of a god.” Her tone brooked no argument, and she met Zeke’s eyes dead on. “I’m proud of him for risking himself to help a friend, and even more proud for thinking it through enough to have backup.”

He rolled his eyes. “You are a terrible influence, you know that? I swear it’s his mother all over again. Teaching him to care about others and take responsibility for his actions? What kind of bleeding heart nonsense is that?”

Despite his words, his tone was wry and, if I paid attention, a little proud. Laughing, I turned to head back. While we walked though, I decided to consult an expert on the strange poisons. “So do you think it was a wish that made that poison?”

“Yes,” he said without hesitation. “Ascendant powers can do almost anything, but the wish power is…sterliized. It’s technically perfect, but you can always tell wish effects from normal abilities and skills for that exact reason. Everything is optimized. It’s sort of soulless. The old man doesn’t see an issue with that, and given how strong his bloodline is it’s hard to argue it’s a genuine weakness, but you can always TELL.”

I hadn’t ever really considered it from that perspective. Wish powers WERE exceptionally clean and optimized. Not as much as the Wish ability itself, obviously (that was where the multiplier came from, the Wish ability was perfected and could exert power beyond the sum of its parts), but I thought back to things like Benny’s early Inventing Skill.

He’d always mentioned how it was so deep and perfectly complete. Of course, I knew that later on that would fade. Not only because of limitations on ranks and Wish costs, but also because technical perfection would have made it impossible to properly adapt Skills on your own once you reached intermediate. In fact, part of the reason I could integrate wished for stats so easily was because of that very effect. The sanitizing prevented me from having to deal with too much recursion, and I suspected it diluted the incoming recursion from other sources at the same time because of the mythology involved.

When we reached the suite, I said my goodbyes to Callie and Zeke and then headed for one of the reading rooms. When I entered, I was amused to find Crell hunched over the book with the charter in it. His eyes were wild, hair disheveled and he looked like he hadn’t slept in months, despite having been fine when I left. “Hi…” I said slowly. “You having some problems?”

“It’s fucking ENCRYPTED!” he spat, gesturing to the book. “All of it. Each letter is an encrypted LIBRARY of information. Just the short section they referenced contains about two hundred thousand books worth of content. LONG books.”

“That…actually makes a lot of sense,” I admitted with a sigh. “Otherwise why would people be so reticent to study it? If it was just a normal book, even with incredibly dense writing, no Ascendant would be worried about reading it all. How far into it have you gotten?” I gestured to where he sat poring over the first page.

He pointed murderously at the third sentence. “Here!” he snapped. “I’m HERE.”

“Ok, yeah, that’s not ideal. I think we’re going to need to switch tactics.” Crell had been planning to memorize the entire charter, just in case the prosecution busted out some shady legalese bullshit that wasn’t referenced in the sections we’d been quoted. Unfortunately, with this news, it was basically impossible for that to happen in time for the trial, whose opening statement I had been informed upon return would be taking place TOMORROW.

So I had to cheat. Luckily, I was exceptional at that. I triggered Beelzebub, then had each of my clones trigger Dantalion. They FURTHER triggered Piece of Mind twice each, which, counting myself in Dantalion, meant FORTY of us working on the same issue. Then we all settled in and started deducing the charter.

To make sure Crell was able to actually read them, each of the clones began inscribing the information into normal books.

Crell, looking relieved, settled in and started digging through the books as my clones produced them. Without the actual DIFFICULTY of decrypting, he was free to just read the information, and considering he was a B-ranker with an exceptionally high Focus, he was finishing them almost as fast as my boys were writing them, at least individually.

Luckily for me, there were forty of us decrypting, and while the clones could only write two books at a time (one hand each), the third parallel was organizing and optimizing the process as they went, which was still enough to keep up with and far surpass Crell’s reading speed.

Honestly, it felt kind of relaxing. Sure, Beelzebub took some of my soul strength, but the processing wasn’t nearly as difficult as fighting the locust poison, and more than that, the longer I did it the more I optimized the process, perfecting it as Dantalion slowly sucked up more information about the book as a whole.

Book after book was stacked on the table. The original estimate of two hundred thousand volumes was based on the kind of overly condensed super compact script that most Ascendants favored for physical media. I did NOT choose to write it out like that, figuring that it would be faster to read in NORMAL font size. As such, it actually ended up being closer to five hundred thousand books.

Even with Ascendant speed and grace, it took most of the night to finish. I remembered Callie coming in at some point to bring me food, and I was pretty sure I’d fallen asleep at least once, though who knew for how long.

Finally though, I finished. With forty decryption specialists writing twenty six books at a time, I’d gotten far ahead of Crell’s reading speed, and after dropping Dantalion, I couldn’t help but wince at the throbbing in my head. Rather than soul strain, this was more like mind strain, and it was something I hadn’t really experienced before.

I checked my scan ring. “Alright, the opening statements are tonight at six P.M. It’s currently…six AM. I’m going to go sleep. I suggest you catch a few hours now and get back to reading when you wake up. You look like hell.”

He slammed the book he was working on shut with a sigh. “Yeah. That might be a good idea.” He took in the pile. “You can be kind of scary sometimes, you know that?”

I shrugged. “I’ve got some tricks. For now though, my sleeves are completely empty.”

“Fair enough,” he laughed. “Just get some sleep, boss. With all this transcribed you’ve done the hard part. Reading a few hundred thousand books won’t be much of a challenge. The hardest part will be trying not to tear the pages while I’m flipping.”

I laughed, because he was right. The sheer processing power of a B-ranked brain would put any low ranked supercomputer to shame. I almost laughed when I thought back to the decryption program the guild had used to crack that scan ring back on Callus during my first big caper. Dantalion made the equipment they’d used look like a tin can on a string.

After saying my goodbyes, I stood and stretched, then headed for bed. Callie was already asleep, and I just took off my armor and climbed in under the covers, drifting off to sleep. Helping Roland, helping Crell, and admittedly helping myself a bit with that second one, today had been a surprisingly good day despite everything at stake. As mind drifted off, I wondered what tomorrow would hold, and if any of those surprises would be pleasant. Despite my current optimism, I somehow doubted it, but I’d handle whatever issues arose as they came. Whatever happened, I would damned sure be ready, and that preparation was really all I could do.